Remote control apparatus, remote control system and device-specific information display method

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a technique for acquiring information specific to a device via an imaging element and performing remote-control of a desired device based on the acquired information specific to the device, and an object thereof is to suspend information display of certain devices in order to suppress disorderliness of a screen and enable remote control of devices to be easily performed. By arranging displaying of the information specific to the device to be suspended according to device state information, the present invention can reduce the risk of remote control being impeded by specific information displayed in an indiscriminant and disordered manner, and efficient remote control operations may be achieved.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a technique for acquiringdevice-specific information via an imaging element and performingremote-control of a desired device based on acquired device-specificinformation.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, various techniques have been developed which enablecontrol of a desired device among a plurality of devices using a singlecontroller in an intuitive and readily understood manner. For instance,according to “Proposal of ‘OPTO-NAVI’ System, which is aninformation-appliance multi-purpose remote controller using a low powerconsumption ID-receiving CMOS image sensor having a function of readinga partial area at a high speed” (The Journal of the Institute of ImageInformation and Television Engineers Vol. 59, No. 12, pp. 1830-1840(2005)), a custom image sensor mounted on a mobile phone is used toreceive an ID from an information appliance while performing real-timecapturing of ordinary images. The received ID is superimposed on thecaptured background image and displayed on a display. A user may performoperations while visually confirming the object device and the device'sID on the display.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With “Proposal of ‘OPTO-NAVI’ System, which is an information-appliancemulti-purpose remote controller using a low power consumptionID-receiving CMOS image sensor having a function of reading a partialarea at a high speed” (hereinafter referred as “non-patent document”),since IDs are displayed even for devices that are substantiallyinoperable, such as those in sleep mode, the ID displays of otherdevices are obstructed. An increase in the number of displayed IDs ofdevices in sleep mode results in the display becoming more disordered,thereby impeding operations and causing image synthesis processing tobecome cumbersome.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the aboveproblem, and an object thereof is to suspend information display ofcertain devices in order to suppress disorderliness of a screen andenable remote control of devices to be easily performed.

A remote control apparatus according to the present invention comprises:an acquisition section that continually acquires, by an imaging element,an image in which subject is a remote control target device, informationspecific to the device that is optically transmitted from the device,and state information of the device; a display section that superimposesthe image with the information specific to the device continuallyacquired by the acquisition section and displays the superimposed image;an instruction acceptance section that accepts, from a user,instructions regarding a selection of information specific to a desiredremote control target device among devices for which the informationspecific to the device has been acquired and a selection of desiredcontrol contents regarding the device for which the information specificto the device has been selected; a remote control section that transmitsa remote control signal corresponding to the control contents selectedat the instruction acceptance section to a device for which theinformation specific to the device has been selected at the instructionacceptance section; and a display control section that controls thedisplay section so as to suspend superposition/display of theinformation specific to the device onto the image according to the stateinformation of the device continually acquired by the acquisitionsection.

Conventionally, since specific information was uniformly superimposedand displayed regardless of the states of devices, selection of adesired control device and control contents was impeded. However, sincethe present invention arranges displaying of information specific to thedevice to be suspended according to device state information, the riskof remote control being impeded by the specific information displayed inan indiscriminant and disordered manner may be reduced, and efficientremote control operations may be realized.

The display control section may commence superposition/display ofinformation specific to suspended devices in response to an instructionto the instruction acceptance section.

This allows information to be displayed in response to user operationsevery time the need arises to perform control, such as turning on power,even for devices for which superposition/display of the specificinformation is being suspended.

The state information of the device includes information indicating thatcontrol of original operations of the device is disabled. Alternatively,the state information of the device includes information indicating thatcontrol is either disabled or restricted.

By suspending display of information specific to the device that is in astate in which control of original operations thereof have beenrestricted, information that is less likely required to be displayed foroperations may be erased from the screen, thereby enabling control oforiginal operations of other devices in an easier manner.

A remote control system according to the present invention comprises: adevice that optically transmits specific information and stateinformation; an acquisition section that continually acquires, by animaging element, an image in which subject is the device, informationspecific to the device that are optically transmitted from the device,and the state information of the device; a display section thatsuperimposes the image with the information specific to the devicecontinually acquired by the acquisition section and displays thesuperimposed image; an instruction acceptance section that accepts, froma user, instructions regarding a selection of information specific to adesired remote control target device among devices for which theinformation specific to the device has been acquired and a selection ofdesired control contents regarding the device for which the informationspecific to the device has been selected; a remote control section thattransmits a remote control signal corresponding to the control contentsselected at the instruction acceptance section to a device for which forthe information specific to the device has been selected at theinstruction acceptance section; and a display control section thatcontrols the display section so as to suspend superposition/display ofthe information specific to the device onto the images according to thestate information of the device continually acquired by the acquisitionsection.

A device-specific information display method according to the presentinvention comprises steps for: continually acquiring, by an imagingelement, an image in which subject is a remote control target device,information specific to the device that is optically transmitted fromthe device, and state information of the device; superimposing the imagewith the information specific to the device continually acquired by theacquisition section and displaying the superimposed image; andcontrolling the display section so as to suspend superposition/displayof the information specific to the device onto the image according tothe state information of the device continually acquired.

By arranging displaying of the information specific to the device to besuspended according to state information of the device, the presentinvention may reduce the risk of remote control being impeded byspecific information displayed in an indiscriminant and disorderedmanner, and efficient remote control operations may be achieved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a remote control system;

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a remote control apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of remote control processing;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which specific information issuperimposed on a still image in which the subject is a device in apower-on state;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which specific information is notsuperimposed on a still image in which the subject is a device in asleep state; and

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which sleep information issuperimposed on a still image in which the subject is a device in asleep state.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote control systemaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The systemcomprises a remote control apparatus 1, and other devices 2 which may bean AV device controlled by the remote control apparatus 1 such as atelevision, video, stereo, or a personal computer, a cooking applianceand the like. The remote control apparatus 1 connects to each of thedevices 2 via an external network such as a mobile communication networkor the Internet, or a local area network (LAN).

When all operations of a device 2 is remote-controllable (for instance,when the main power of the device 2 is turned on), the device 2superimposes a low-frequency pilot signal for notifying its owninformation transmission position onto device-specific information thatis information specific to the device (this information may be anidentification number, an ID, a serial number, a manufacturer number, amodel number, a model of the device 2, an address on an externalnetwork, or any other information that is specific to the device 2), andcontinually transmits this information by means of optical signals suchas infrared.

In a sleep state, the device 2 also superimposes sleep informationindicating that the device is in a sleep state onto the low-frequencypilot signal in addition to the device-specific information, andcontinually transmits the information. As used herein, a sleep stateindicates a state that is achieved by, for instance, turning on power inresponse to a power-on by a remote control signal, in which minimalfunctions required for activating the device 2 are operational butcontrol of the original operations of the device (for instance, in thecase of a television, selecting channels or adjusting audio volume andthe like) is either disabled or restricted. This sleep state mayalternatively be referred to as a standby state or an idle state.

In addition, the device 2 receives remote control signals (transmittedas either an optical signal such as an infrared signal and the like, oras an electric signal such as that used by Bluetooth, wireless LAN andthe like).

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a remote control apparatus 1according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The remotecontrol apparatus 1 comprises: a camera section 20 that includes animage-taking lens, a solid-state image sensor such as a CMOS or a CCD,an analog front end circuit that processes an analog image read from thesolid-state image sensor by a driver into a digital signal, a signalprocessing circuit such as a DSP (digital signal processor) or the likethat processes a digital image signal from the analog front end circuit;a camera control section 21 that is configured by an one-chipmicrocomputer or the like and controls imaging operations of the camerasection 20, and the like.

In addition, the remote control apparatus 1 comprises a display controlsection 26 that controls displaying on a display section 13 accordingto: input operations to an operating section 14 that is configured by anumerical keypad, a direction key or the like; various operation signalsreceived by a remote control signal transmission/reception section 22from an outside source; images and device-specific information acquiredby the camera section 20, and the like.

The remote control apparatus 1 also comprises: a CPU 10 that supervisesoperation control of each section; a ROM 12 that stores various data andprograms; and a RAM 11 that stores various data required by the CPU 10to perform various processing.

In particular, the ROM 12 stores, for each of the existing devices 2, acontrol program that enables the CPU 10 to control a remote controlsignal control section 23 or a wireless control section 16 so that aremote control signal, on which a control code of the device 2corresponding to an operation to the operating section 14 issuperimposed, is transmitted, and also stores a remote control GUI thatvisually displays a relationship between an operation of each section ofthe operating section 14 and control codes superimposed by suchoperations.

For example, an optical double zoom lens is used as the image-takinglens, and the optical zoom magnification is changed by a motor driverforward and backward driving the image-taking lens to thetelephotographic (tele) side or the wide-angle (wide) side in accordancewith a magnification change operation inputted from the operationsection 14. The magnification of the image-taking lens is not limited tothe above. An aperture is provided for the image-taking lens. Anappropriate amount of exposure is obtained by controlling the aperturevia the motor driver.

When the photographing mode is set by the operation section 14, the CPU10 displays a motion picture (live images) on the display section 13 toenable confirmation of the image-taking angle of field. That is, thesolid-state image sensor converts a light of a subject which is incidentthrough the image-taking lens and is formed on the light-receivingsurface of the image sensor to an amount of signal charge correspondingto the amount of the light. The signal charges of respective pixelsaccumulated in this way are sequentially and individually read by thedriver as voltage signals (image signals) corresponding to the signalcharges, based on a driving pulse given by a timing generator inaccordance with a direction from the CPU 10 and converted to digitalsignals in the analog front-end circuit, and each of them is added tothe signal processing circuit.

The signal processing circuit includes a gain adjustment circuit and anA/D converter. It is an image processing device which includes abrightness/color difference signal generation circuit, a gammacorrection circuit, a sharpness correction circuit, a contrastcorrection circuit, a white balance correction circuit, an outlineprocessing section for performing imaging processing including outlinecorrection for a taken image, a noise reduction processing section forperforming noise reduction processing of an image and the like, and itprocesses an image signal in accordance with a command from the CPU 10.

The image data inputted into the signal processing circuit is convertedto a brightness signal (Y signal) and a color difference signal (Cr/Cbsignal), and the signals are stored in the VRAM after predeterminedprocessings such as gamma correction is performed therefor.

When the monitor output of a taken image to the display section 13 isperformed, a Y/C signal is read from the VRAM and sent to a displaycontrol section 26. The display control section 26 converts the inputtedY/C signal to a signal of a predetermined method for display (forexample, a compound color picture signal of an NTSC method) and outputsit to the display section 13.

The Y/C signals of respective frames which have been processed at apredetermined frame rate are written in an A area and a B area of theVRAM alternatively, and a written Y/C signal is read not from the areain which a Y/C signal is being written but from the other area, betweenthe A and B areas. By the Y/C signals in the VRAM being periodicallyoverwritten, and picture signals generated from the Y/C signals beingprovided for the display section 13, the picture being taken isdisplayed on the display section 13 in real time. The user can confirmthe image-taking angle of field by the picture (live images) displayedon the display section 13.

Here, when a photographing key provided on the operation section 14 ispressed, a photographing operation for storage is started. Image dataacquired in response to the pressing of the photographing key isconverted to a brightness/color difference signal (Y/C signal) in thesignal processing circuit, and it is stored in the RAM 11 afterpredetermined processings such as gamma correction are performedtherefor.

The Y/C signal stored in the RAM 11 is compressed in accordance with apredetermined format by a compression/expansion processing circuit andthen stored in a memory card 27 as an image file in a predeterminedformat such as an Exif file. The image file can also be stored in aflash memory 28.

When the reproduction mode is set by the operation section 14, thecompressed data of the final image file stored in the flash memory 28 (afile stored last) is read. When the file stored last is a still imagefile, the read compressed image data is expanded to an uncompressed Y/Csignal via the compression/expansion processing circuit and stored inthe VRAM. The Y/C signal stored in the VRAM is added to the displaycontrol section 26. The display control section 26 creates a compoundRGB color picture signal of the NTSC method from the inputted Y/C signaland outputs it to the display section 13. Thereby, the frame image ofthe last frame stored in the memory card 27 is displayed on the displaysection 13.

After that, when the right key of a cross key provided on the operationsection 14 is pressed, frame advancing is performed in the forwarddirection, and when the left key of the cross key is pressed, framereturning is performed in the opposite direction. Then, an image file atthe frame position set by the frame advancing or returning is read fromthe memory card 27, and a frame image is reproduced on the displaysection 13 similarly as described above. If frame advancing is performedin the forward direction when the frame image of the last frame isdisplayed, the image file of the first frame stored in the memory card27 is read, and the frame image of the first frame is reproduced on thedisplay section 13.

The number of pixels of an image file to be stored is, for example, anyof 2832×2128 (6 M), 2048×1536 (3 M), 1280×960 (1 M) and 640×480 (VGA),and the amount of data of a taken image (the file size) changesaccording to the combination of the stored image quality and the numberof stored pixels.

The remote control apparatus 1 may be configured by a camera-equippedmobile phone or a digital camera, as described in the above-identifiednon-patent document. However, the block (the memory card 27 or the flashmemory 28) related to recording and storing images is not essential tothe present embodiment.

The remote control signal transmission/reception section 22 comprises alight receiving element. Although FIG. 2 shows the camera section 20 andthe remote control signal transmission/reception section 22 as separatecomponents, the light receiving element actually doubles as thesolid-state image sensor of the camera section 20. Therefore, by havingthe camera section 20 capture images using the devices 2 as subjects,device-specific information optically transmitted by each device 2 maybe acquired along with the image.

The remote control signal control section 23 converts device-specificinformation superimposed on an optical signal incident to the remotecontrol transmission/reception section 22 from an external device 2 intodigital data, and outputs the same to the CPU 10.

In response to device-specific information inputted from the remotecontrol signal control section 23, the CPU 10 reads out a table definingcontrol codes specific to the devices 2 identified by thedevice-specific information from the ROM 12 to the RAM 11. The CPU 10then reads out a control code specific to the device 2 specified by thedevice-specific information from the RAM 11 in response to an operationspecifying desired device-specific information on the display section 13from the operating section 14, and transmits the control code to theremote control signal control section 23.

The remote control transmission/reception section 22 comprises anoptical signal transmission device including a light-emitting diode andan infrared LED or the like. The remote control signal control section23 transmits an optical signal that is superimposed with the controlcode and other data instructed by the CPU 10 to the specified device 2.As seen, remote control of the device 2 is achieved by transmittingoptical control signals from the remote control apparatus 1 to thespecified device 2.

In addition, the remote control apparatus 1 comprises: a wirelesstransmission/reception section 17 that transmits to and receives fromthe device 2 wireless signals such as mobile communication waves andsignals used in IrDA, Bluetooth, wireless LAN, wireless USB and thelike; a wireless control section 16 that converts received wirelesssignals into data and transmits the same to the CPU 10, or superimposesremote control signals instructed by the CPU 10 onto wireless signals;and an external interface section 15 that communicates with variouselectrical home appliances 2 such as a personal computer, a printer andthe like, according to a standard such as USB or the like.

The CPU 10 may also read out a control code specific to a device 2corresponding to operations of the operating section 14 from the RAM 11,and transmit the control code to the wireless control section 16. Thewireless control section 16 transmits a wireless signal that issuperimposed with the control code and other data inputted from the CPU10 to the device 2. The wireless signal reaches the device 2 via a LANor an external network. Upon receiving the control code, the device 2performs operation in accordance with the control code. As seen, remotecontrol of a specific device 2 by the operating section 14 may also beachieved by transmitting a wireless signal from the remote controlapparatus 1 to the device 2.

The remote control apparatus 1 comprises: a transmitter/receiver section19 that includes a sound amplification device, such as a loudspeaker,that emits sound, and a receiving device, such as a microphone, thatconverts received sound into electrical signals; and an audio controlsection 18 that controls the contents of speech of the soundamplification device. The audio control section 18 is provided with afunction for identifying a specific audio pattern specified by the CPU10 from an audio signal inputted from the transmitter/receiver section19.

The CPU 10 may also read out a control code of a specific device 2corresponding to audio received by the transmitter/receiver section 19from the RAM 11, and transmit the control code to the remote controlsignal control section 23 or the wireless control section 16. In otherwords, specification of a control code transmitted by means of either anoptical signal or a wireless signal to a specific device 2 is notlimited to input operations to the operating section 14, and may insteadbe performed by audio input.

Additionally, in response to an input operation to the operating section14 or an audio input to the transmitter/receiver section 19, the CPU 10selects whether the control code will be transmitted from the remotecontrol signal transmission/reception section 22 or from the wirelesstransmission/reception section 17. If the remote control apparatus 1 isin the presence of the device 2 to be controlled, the control code maysimply be transmitted from the remote control signaltransmission/reception section 22. If not, the user instructs the CPU 10by means of an input operation to the operating section 14 or an audioinput to the transmitter/receiver section 19 that the control code willbe transmitted from the wireless transmission/reception section 17. Inresponse to this instruction, the CPU 10 performs control so that thecontrol code is transmitted from the wireless transmission/receptionsection 17.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of remote control processing thatis performed by the remote control apparatus 1.

First, in S1, the CPU 10 instructs the camera control section 21 tocommence a still image acquisition operation in response to an imaginginstruction inputted to the operating section 14 or thetransmitter/receiver section 19. The camera control section 21 acquiresa still image by controlling the camera section 20, and stores the stillimage into the RAM 11.

In S2, the CPU 10 determines whether at least one pilot signal has beendetected from the image acquired from the camera section 20. When it isdetermined that at least one pilot signal has been detected, the processproceeds to S3. If no pilot signal has been detected, the processreturns to S1.

In S3, the CPU 10 identifies an information transmission position basedon a detected position of the pilot signal.

In S4, the CPU 10 once again performs a still image acquisitionoperation at a high frame rate for the portion that is the informationtransmission position and at a low frame rate for other portions.

In S5, the CPU 10 displays a live view of the acquired still image ontothe display section 13, and at the same time extracts superimposedinformation (either only device-specific information, or bothdevice-specific information and sleep information).

In S6, the CPU 10 determines whether the extracted information includessleep information. If sleep information is included, the processproceeds to S7, and if not, the process proceeds to S8.

In S7, according to a user operation inputted to the operating section14, the CPU 10 selects whether sleep information should be displayed. Inthe event that sleep information will be displayed, the process proceedsto S10. If not, the process proceeds to S9. Selection of whether sleepinformation will be displayed may either be arranged to be performed ateach device 2, or arranged to be uniformly performed.

In S8, the CPU 10 synthesizes the extracted device-specific informationonto the vicinity of the information transmission position of eachdevice 2 in the still image, and arranges the information to bedisplayed on the display section 13.

In S9, among the extracted device-specific information, the CPU 10synthesizes device-specific information of devices 2 that are nottransmitting sleep information onto the vicinity of the informationtransmission position of each device 2 in the still image, and arrangesthe information to be displayed on the display section 13.

In S10, the CPU 10 synthesizes the extracted device-specific informationonto the vicinity of the information transmission position of eachdevice 2 in the still image, and arranges the information to bedisplayed on the display section 13. At the same time, the CPU 10synthesizes sleep information and device-specific information onto thevicinity of the information transmission position of the devices 2 thathave transmitted sleep information in the still image, and arranges theinformation to be displayed on the display section 13.

In S11, the CPU 10 transmits a remote control signal that includes adesired control code selected via the operating section 14 to a desireddevice 2 for which device-specific information has been selected on thedisplay section 13 by the operating section 14.

FIGS. 4 to 6 illustrate display states of the display section 13 basedon the operations described above.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a live view in the event that a still imageis acquired using devices 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3, which are respectivelyturned on, as subjects. In this case, since a television 2-1, a personalcomputer 2-2 and a digital camera 2-3 are respectively turned on, andnone have transmitted sleep information, specific information of eachdevice 2 is synthesized onto and displayed at a vicinity of aninformation transmission position of the still image in which eachdevice 2 is a subject.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a live view in the event that the device 2-1has transmitted sleep information. In this case, since the personalcomputer 2-2 and the digital camera 2-3 are respectively turned on andneither has transmitted sleep information, specific information of thedevices 2-2 and 2-3 is synthesized onto and displayed at a vicinity ofrespective information transmission position of the still image. On theother hand, since the television 2-1 has transmitted sleep information,specific information of the device 2-1 will not be synthesized onto avicinity of the information transmission position of the device 2-1.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a live view in the event that the device 2-1has transmitted sleep information, and at the same time an instructionto display the sleep information has been issued by the operatingsection 14. In this case, specific information is also displayed for thedevice 2-1 that is in a sleep state. In addition, since sleepinformation is also displayed, it may be easily acknowledged that thedevice 2-1 is in a sleep state.

As described above, since the remote control apparatus 1 suspendsdisplaying of device-specific information to be suspended in accordanceto reception of sleep information from the device 2, the risk of remotecontrol being impeded by device-specific information displayed in anindiscriminant and disordered manner may be reduced, and efficientremote control operations may be achieved.

In addition, if necessary, the operating section 14 may be operated on acase-by-case basis to have specific information or sleep information ofa device 2 in a sleep state to be displayed as well.

1. A remote control apparatus, comprising: an acquisition section thatcontinually acquires, by an imaging element, an image in which a subjectthereof comprises a remote control target device, information specificto the device that is optically transmitted from the device, and stateinformation of the device; a display section that superimposes the imagewith the information specific to the device continually acquired by theacquisition section and displays the superimposed image; an instructionacceptance section that accepts, from a user, instructions regarding aselection of information specific to a desired remote control targetdevice among devices for which the information specific to the devicehas been acquired and a selection of desired control contents regardingthe device for which the information specific to the device has beenselected; a remote control section that transmits a remote controlsignal corresponding to the desired control contents selected at theinstruction acceptance section to a device for which the informationspecific to the device has been selected at the instruction acceptancesection; and a display control section that controls the display sectionto suspend superposition/display of the information specific to thedevice onto the image according to the state information of the devicecontinually acquired by the acquisition section, said state informationof the device comprising sleep information of the device.
 2. The remotecontrol apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display controlsection commences the suspended superposition/display of the informationspecific to the device in a response to an instruction to theinstruction acceptance section.
 3. The remote control apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein the sleep information of the deviceincludes information indicating that control of original operations ofthe devices is restricted.
 4. The remote control apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the sleep information of the device includesinformation indicating that control of original operations of thedevices is restricted.
 5. The remote control apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the sleep information of the device comprisesinformation on the device when the device is substantially inoperable.6. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sleepinformation of the device comprises information indicating that controlof original operations of the device is one of disabled and restricted.7. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a sleepstate, the device superimposes the sleep information indicating that thedevice is in the sleep state in addition to the information specific tothe device.
 8. The remote control apparatus according to claim 7,wherein the sleep state comprises a standby state.
 9. The remote controlapparatus according to claim 7, wherein the sleep state comprises anidle state.
 10. The remote control apparatus according to claim 7,wherein in the sleep state minimal functions required for activating thedevice are operational, and control of original operations of the deviceis one of disabled and restricted.
 11. The remote control apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the display section displays the sleepinformation and the information specific to the device.
 12. The remotecontrol apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a sleep state, thedevice continually transmits to the acquisition section the sleepinformation indicating that the device is in the sleep state and theinformation specific to the device.
 13. A remote control system,comprising: a device that optically transmits specific information andstate information; an acquisition section that continually acquires, byan imaging element, an image in which a subject thereof comprises thedevice, information specific to the device that is optically transmittedfrom the device, and the state information of the device; a displaysection that superimposes the image with the information specific to thedevice continually acquired by the acquisition section and displays thesuperimposed image; an instruction acceptance section that accepts, froma user, instructions regarding a selection of information specific to adesired remote control target device among devices for which theinformation specific to the device has been acquired and a selection ofdesired control contents regarding the device for which the informationspecific to the device has been selected; a remote control section thattransmits a remote control signal corresponding to the desired controlcontents selected at the instruction acceptance section to a device forwhich the information specific to the device has been selected at theinstruction acceptance section; and a display control section thatcontrols the display section to suspend superposition/display of thedevice-specific information onto the image according to the stateinformation of the device continually acquired by the acquisitionsection, said state information of the device comprising sleepinformation of the device.
 14. A device-specific information displaymethod, comprising: continually acquiring, by an imaging element, animage in which a subject thereof comprises a remote control targetdevice, information specific to the device that is optically transmittedfrom the device, and state information of the device; superimposing theimage with the information specific to the device continually acquiredby the imaging element and displaying the superimposed image; andcontrolling the displaying to suspend superposition/display of theinformation specific to the device onto the image according to the stateinformation of the device continually acquired, said state informationof the device comprising sleep information of the device.